Major League Baseball announced the 14 finalists for the 2020 Hank Aaron Award, which has recognized the most outstanding regular season offensive performer in each league since 1999. For the Los Angeles Dodgers, the honor goes to Corey Seager, who was previously nominated for the award in 2016.
Appearing in all but eight of the Dodgers’ 60 regular-season games this year, Seager hit a stellar .307/.358/.585 with 12 doubles, one triple, 15 home runs and 41 RBI over 232 plate appearances.
Seager finished first among his Dodgers teammates in doubles, RBI and hits (65), while also tying with Justin Turner for highest batting average. Seager placed second in home runs, third in on-base plus slugging (.943) and fifth in on-base percentage.
The other players in contention for the 2020 Hank Aaron Award are José Abreu, Freddie Freeman, José Ramirez, Mike Trout, Dominic Smith, Nelson Cruz, Bryce Harper, DJ LeMahieu, Manny Machado, Brandon Lowe, Paul Goldschmidt, Teoscar Hernández and Juan Soto.
Of the 14 players nominated for the honor, only three are former winners in Trout, Harper and Goldschmidt. Each club nominated one player from its team to be considered for the 2020 Hank Aaron Award. A panel of MLB.com writers then determined the seven finalists from each league.
The winners from each league will now be decided by a fan vote, with the help of a special panel of Hall of Fame players led by Hank Aaron. The panel of Hall of Famers includes Roberto Alomar, Johnny Bench, Craig Biggio, Ken Griffey Jr., Eddie Murray and Robin Yount.
Through Oct. 18, fans will have the opportunity to select one American League and one National League winner from a list comprising of the 14 finalists.
Dodgers’ representatives for the Hank Aaron Award
Last season, the Dodgers’ representative for the Hank Aaron Award was Cody Bellinger, who went on to win 2019 NL MVP honors. However, he ultimately fell short to the Milwaukee Brewers’ Christian Yelich in Hank Aaron Award voting.
In 2018, Max Muncy was the Dodgers’ representative for the honor. Though, it also went to Yelich, who additionally was named the NL MVP that season.
In 2017, Bellinger was nominated by the Dodgers for the Hank Aaron Award. He was bested by the Miami Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton, but still took home some hardware that offseason, earning unanimous NL Rookie of the Year honors.
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